Monday, March 21, 2016

Apparently God picks winners and losers

“In spite of James Madison's best thinking we permit fanciful religious doctrine to be imposed on public policy.”

The title of the story at Charisma News reads “Miraculous Stories Like This Prove God Is Real.” The miracle, it seems, was that children were not on a school bus when a concrete slab from a collapsing building in Pennsylvania crashed into a school bus. God's hand was at work when the bus discharged students (per the schedule) prior to the accident.

Where was divine intervention in France last month? At least eight children were killed in two separate bus accidents in France in February. I'm not too fond of France either. But still … In this country, in the ten years ended 2008 1,564 people died in school
transportation-related crashes.

While we are at it, why stop as school busses? In the US, over 1,600 children under 15 years of age die each year in road crashes.
Nearly 8,000 people are killed in crashes involving drivers ages 16-20.

There are no miracles. I take that back. It is miraculous that people donate money to preachers promising miracles of another sort. The important thing for us is that that this is the kind of selective observation that is often employed to deny full equality to LGBT citizens. In spite of James Madison's best thinking we permit fanciful religious doctrine to be imposed on public policy.